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Fata political agents redesignated as DCs, ACs

PESHAWAR: In one of the major steps to mainstream the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa authorities have re-designated the offices of political agents as deputy commissioners and stopped the collection of Agency Welfare Funds.

The decision is one of the major developments after the merger of Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Following the notification issued by the Home and Tribal Areas Department, the designation of the political agents and assistant political agents has been changed.

“The offices of political agents have been re-designated as deputy commissioners, additional political agents as additional deputy commissioners and assistant political agents as assistant commissioners,” stated the notification of the Home and Tribal Affairs Department of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa issued on Friday. The change in the administrative setup would be brought with immediate effect.

The decision has brought to an end the offices of the political agents, who had executive, judicial and financial powers. The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and Peshawar High Court has also been extended to the tribal district and a new judicial system will be introduced there. A policing system is also under consideration for the tribal districts.

Another notification of the office of Chief Secretary on Friday also stopped the collection of the Agency Welfare Funds in all the tribal districts after merger with KP. “Collection of all kinds of rahdarees, import tax, export tax and levies collected by the political administration shall be immediately stopped. A compliance report shall be sent to the office of additional chief secretary for Fata within 48 hours,” said another notification.

It added that all expenditure from the Agency Development Fund shall be stopped forthwith, adding, a bank statement of the mentioned accounts shall be sent to the additional chief secretary. “All the checkposts erected for the purpose shall be removed,” it said.